When is North North?

[David King]

I had a little question relating to the Gauss meter's declarations of "North" and "South" vs my crappy, old Silva compass. The red end of the needle generally points to what I think of as magnetic North (i.e. Canada). When I put the gauss meter on the red tip of the compass, the gauss meter indicates that the needle tip is indeed "North". All seems well and fine except that when I examine a magnet with the compass and I examine the same pole of that same magnet with the Gauss meter -THEY DISAGREE.
Is it all in my head or am I the last guy on earth to discover that the North Pole is actually a south pole hence it ATTRACTS other North poles. I tried looking this info up on wikipedia but did not find satisfaction. Please enlighten me.

[Stealth]

You're the last guy on earth.

All kidding aside - the compass's north points to the geographic north, which is actually a magnetic south. It's all normal.

[Steve Conner]

I'm pretty sure the North Pole is in fact a north pole. And therefore the end of the compass needle that points towards it is a south pole, even if it says N on it.

So either your gauss meter is wired up backwards (is there even a standard for magnetic polarity of gauss meters?) or they finally got the Large Hadron Collider working.

Edit: I found this:

Please note: Purists sometimes name the ends of a bar magnet "north seeking" and "south seeking" rather than "north" and "south", because if the Earth's field were due to a bar magnet near its center, the north-seeking end of that bar would be closer to the south magnetic pole, and vice versa.

here: http://www-istp.gsfc.nasa.gov/earthmag/mill_4.htm

Does this mean that magnet poles are defined the same way as a compass needle, so the north pole of a magnet is the north-seeking one? (and the earth's north pole is the south-seeking one )

[Stealth]

Wikipedia claims this:
"In physics, all magnets have two poles that are distinguished by the direction of the magnetic flux. In principle these poles could be named in any way; for example, as "+" and "−", or "A" and "B". However, based on the early use of magnets in compasses they were named the "north pole" (or more explicitly "north-seeking pole"), "N", and the "south pole" (or "south-seeking pole"), "S", with the north pole being the pole that pointed north (i.e. the one attracted to the Earth's North Magnetic Pole). Because opposite poles attract, the Earth's North Magnetic Pole is therefore, by this definition, physically a magnetic field south pole.[1][2][3] Conversely, the Earth's South Magnetic Pole is physically a magnetic field north pole."

The whole system was basically pretty arbitrarily designed. When talking to my university's physics and electromagnetics profesors, they all claim north geographic = south magnetic and that the north-seeking pole of the magnet is in fact THE north pole, just as you said.

[-Elepro-]

link

[David King]

Well phoo all over me then and thanks to all of you. It's all starting to make sense but when I was using the compass to check polarities I was always marking them wrong. I'm just starting to wonder if anyone else was making the same mistake... not that it makes a difference. I don't see a smiley with egg on it's face so I'll have to settle with

[Arndawg56]

I had a little question relating to the Gauss meter's declarations of "North" and "South" vs my crappy, old Silva compass. The red end of the needle generally points to what I think of as magnetic North (i.e. Canada). When I put the gauss meter on the red tip of the compass, the gauss meter indicates that the needle tip is indeed "North". All seems well and fine except that when I examine a magnet with the compass and I examine the same pole of that same magnet with the Gauss meter -THEY DISAGREE.
Is it all in my head or am I the last guy on earth to discover that the North Pole is actually a south pole hence it ATTRACTS other North poles. I tried looking this info up on wikipedia but did not find satisfaction. Please enlighten me.

Let me know if you plan on using the Earth in one of your pickups......
so I can move

[Stan H]

Let me know if you plan on using the Earth in one of your pickups......
so I can move

[automan]

or they finally got the Large Hadron Collider workin

I literally Laughed Out Loud when I read that.

[Sock Puppet]

Just a brief clarification,

The north pole of a compass is the north seeking pole and will point to the "top" of our earth maps at this point in time:

WHEN NORTH GOES SOUTH: Three-Dimensional Simulation of Geomagnetic Field Reversal

It actually points to the south pole (geo north) at the moment.

I've never fully understood how magnets "work" but many years on, am still fascinated.

The LHC stands little chance of working properly for a while due to the Higgs boson travelling back in time to break the early versions.

This is solely due to the miraculous safeguards implemented by God (or the God Particle) against the singularity that could be created if it did work now.

Either that or We're in a time loop and you'll read this again and again....

Maybe not a bad thing when you consider the arse that homo sapiens (Lat. "Wise Man") has made of this playground of a planet.

Just a thought.

S.

BTW - not looking for a discussion here, it's all beyond me.

[Old Tele man]

...it's simple really, NORTH is UP, as in '...where Santa Clause comes from...', unless of course you're in Australia.

[David Schwab]

Who got that wrong in the first place?

I'd really have thought the Earth's North magnetic pole was near the North pole and not the South pole.

[Sock Puppet]

Who got that wrong in the first place?

I'd really have thought the Earth's North magnetic pole was near the North pole and not the South pole.

Just swap the hot and ground wires.

[David Schwab]

Just swap the hot and ground wires.

That's when you want the Peter Green playing at the Equator tone.

[bnwitt]

This is all very interesting. You know, I'm in the solar business and I do site surveys all the time. I have a solar pathfinder with a built in compass and the red is in the shed as it should be. I also have a little small pocket compass that came with my first Direct TV dish install some 10 years ago. The two didn't agree which way was north and which way was south. So, after reading this thread, I took a refrigerator magnet and fixed the pocket unit. Now, red is north on both compasses.